Why Bother with Shark Week When You Can Have Them All Year?

[lock_washer]

Hey Doctor Bill,

Is the Pacific Sleeper Shark considered to be the largest species of deepwater shark?

Lock Washer

 

[drbill]

Since the Pacific sleeper shark, Somniosus pacificus, is not normally seen within SCUBA depths it is not one included on the DVD set. Only the ones commonly seen at diving depths in SoCal are included. Estimates of that shark's maximum length have ranged as high as 7m.

 

[drbill]

UPDATE: Episode #5 (horn sharks) finished. Two more to go...

 

[drbill]

I'm finishing up the last episode (#7, bat rays) this week so I'm still on schedule to get this done by the end of this month. Total length will be 154 minutes (2 hr 34 min), with 140 min of that shark and ray specific footage. I may have to put this out as a 3-disc set which will increase the price a bit.

The next series I'll be working on will be the echinoderms, followed by the wrasses.

 

[drbill]

I've heard some folks are having trouble with the link to the Sharks & Rays DVD. I can't see any reason why that might be. Try accessing it from the main page with all my DVD on it. Hopefully that will work.

http://www.starthrower.org/products/dvd/DVD.htm

Despite having been bedridden with the flu most of the last four days, I should have this one ready on time.

 

[drbill]

$&*I^ (I hope THAT isn't against the TOS)

After discovering yesterday that many of the video segments completed for this DVD have dropped frames, I was running diagnostics on all my drives only to have the boot drive on the video editing system appear to crash this afternoon.

I did what we were all taught to do in OW SCUBA class... stop, breathe, think and... turn the darned computer off and go watch a DVD ("The Kingdom" was my diversion tonight).

I'm started to look at the hardware now to see if what seems to have happened actually is the problem. Even if the boot drive (and data partition on that drive) were wiped out, all the project files for the DVD itself are backed up on two separate hard drives and a second computer.

If I can't get this system functioning tonight, I'll just move the USB drives with the project data files over to my laptop to complete the project... Hopefully still on time.

I'm beginning to wonder if my poor little hard drive didn't catch the same virus that laid me low the past week or so? It might be out for another 5-6 days if that's the case.

 

[DavidPT40]

Your web page is loading fine for me now Dr. Bill. The screen shots look awesome.

 

[drbill]

As promised, the DVD set is now ready. I'm releasing it as a two disc set with a single disc for the three episodes on rays and a single disc for the four episodes on sharks..

As for the web page not loading earlier... for some reason the DNS servers that were being pointed to were five years old. They're now current.

 

[drbill]

Just received a message from a SB member who was among the first to purchase the now released Sharks & Rays of Southern California DVD. He was very impressed with it. Always good to hear positive feedback from a happy customer.

I'm now working on "Echinoderms of Southern California" which I hope to have completed by May 1st. That will be followed by "Wrasses of Southern California."

 

[Aquatic Eagle]

I think it's terrible the way that Shark Week has gone. I have watched that segment pretty religiously since I was very small but in recent years, I don't even bother to look for it. The lineup for all of the years recently has been nothing but shark attacks, "terror of the deep", interviews of shark attack survivors, the impact of a swimming shark when it bites down on a leg with a running start, etc. It really is sad that the Discovery Channel has given in to the portion of the viewing public that is bloodthirsty and only watches tv to see something get eaten by something else. I miss the good shark shows. Maybe I'll check out your DVD set. I'm always up for a new marine documentary.